SB 981 
.fl5 
1912b 
Copy 1 



SB 981 
.R5 

1912b 

_ . > Congress, . ^^^^^^ ^^ ^.^^ ^.^.^^^^^^^^^, ^^. , x^r^ryjix.^ 

^°Py ^ d Session. \ 1 No. 398. 



IMPORTATION AND RLOVEMENT OF PLANTvS, FRUITS, AND 

VEGETABLES. 



March 8, 1912. — Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the 
Union and ordered to be printed. 



Mr. Simmons, froni the Gbmmittoe on Agriciiltiuo. submitted the 

following 

REPORT. 

[To accompany H. R. 21291.] 

The Committee on Agriculture, having had under cor^sideration the 
bill (H. R. 21291) to regulate the importation of nursery stock and 
other plants and plant ])roducts; to enable the Secretary of Agricul- 
ture to establish and maintain quarantine districts for plant diseases 
and insect pests; to permit and regidate the movement of fruits, 
plants, and vegetables therefrom, and for other purposes, report 
thereon with the recommendation that it be amended as follows: 

Page 1, line 5, strike out the word ''and " and insert the word "any." 

Page 5, line 2, strike out the word "further." 

Page 5, line 20, strike out the comma after "disease." 

Page 5, line 21, insert a comma after "insect." 

The committee recommend that the bill as thus amended do pass. 

EXPLANATION OF THE BILL. 

In general, tlte Federal powers granted in this act relate to the 
establishment of foreign and domestic C|uarantine, the issuance of 
pejmits, foreign certification, and the distribution to the several State 
or Territorial oiFicials of exact information in regard to origin, arrival, 
and destination of importations. 

To the several States are left the responsi])ility of inspection at 
destination of imported stock and the cleaning up and disinfection of 
local quarantined districts. 

Section 1 pi-ovides that "nursery stock" may be imported only 
after a permit has been taken out and wlien accompanied by a cer- 
tificate showing foreign inspection. The issuance of the permit is 
mandatory when the conditions of tlie section have been met. Tl(e 



2 IMPORTATION AND MOVEMENT OF PLANTS^ ETC. 

section provides, liowever, that for scientific or experimental pur- 
poses plants may be imported by the Department of Agriculture with- 
out the permit. Provision is also made for the importation without 
certificate of inspection, under proper regulations, from countries 
where there are no means for such inspection. 

While the issuance of the permit required in this section is manda- 
tory, it nevertheless affords a large protection, in that it gives oppor- 
tunity for a warning, if necessary, to be sent to the importer before 
he makes his importation if tlie goods covered are deemed dangerous, 
and also opportunity to warn the State official long in advance of the 
intended importation of stock if the same again are deemed likely to 
carry danger. 

Furthermore, the foreign certification can be made to have dis- 
tinct value, inasmuch as such certification to be acceptable can be 
requiied to be made by proper and accredited foreign officers, and of 
such character as to give assurance that the stock covered is clean. 

Finally, the permit and the foreign certification will act of them- 
selves very largely to prevent the importation of refuse stock by 
department stores or such as is now shipped in by foreign dealers to 
be sold at auction, and very much miscellaneous small importations, 
which have an especial danger from the difficulty of following up and 
inspecting such sendings. 

Section 2. Notification section; requires notification from customs 
officers, fu'st receivers of stock, person or firm offering it for transpor- 
tation, and transporting firm or other carrier, the object being to fully 
advise the Secretary of Agiiculture of the arrival and transportation 
of such stock to destination, information now onl}^ partially available. 
This information is to be transmitted by the department to the 
proper State officials so that all imjjorted stock can be inspected by 
the latter. Tlie Department of Agriculture acts merely as a clearing 
house for information, and the actual inspection of imported stock is 
left entirely to State officials. 

Section 3. Labeling of imported stock as a condition of entry. 

Section 4. Labeling of imported stock as a condition of interstate 
transportation. 

Section 5. After due notice and public hearing, makes provision 
for the inclusion under the foregoing provisions of the act, when 
necessary, of the plants and plant products excepted in the definition 
of "nursery stock" as given in section 6. The quarantine sections, 7 
and 8, and the subsequent sections of the act apply to all plants and 
plant products, including these excepted articles. 

These excepted articles will normalh' carry little danger of intro- 
ducing new insects or diseases, and therefore, to save both unneces- 
sary Federal supervision, extending to thousands of small seed packets 
and similar importations, and also to avoid placing unnecessary bur- 
dens on importers of such articles, the requirements of the first four 
sections, relating to the permit, notification, and labeling, are not to be 
placed on these articles except when some real danger develops. 

Section 6 defines "nursery stock" as used in this act. 

Section 7. After due notice and public hearing, provides for quar- 
antining foreign districts to exclude plants or plant products which 
may convey fruit diseases or insect pests new to or not theretofore 
widely prevalent or distributed M'ithin and throughout the United 
States. Excludes such articles, which are to be specifically enumer- 



A 



_ ^ IMPORTATION AND MOVEMENT OF PLANTS, ETC. 3 

ated, until quarantine is withdrawn, even though such articles are 
offered for entry accompanied by a foreign certificate. Provides 
that, in its application to the white-pine blister rust, the potato 
wart, and the Mediterranean fruit fly, the quarantine provisions of 
this section shall become applicable upon the enactment of the bill. 

In the quarantine provisions of this section the particular plant 
conveying the danger is excluded, hut no unnecessar)' restrictions 
are to be placed upon other plants not affected by such quarantine. 
The particular wording adopted in reference to such quarantine, 
namely, "diseases or insect pests new to or not theretofore widely 
prevalent or distributed within and throughout the United States," 
will enable the Department of Agriculture to declare a quarantine 
against any foreign pest whatsoever which should be legitimately 
subject to quarantine — in other words, to any pest which has not 
already been distributed and established throughout the United 
States — so that there would be no territory unaffected to which 
Federal quarantine could properh' apply. 

Section 8. . After due notice and public hearing, provides for do- 
mestic quarantine for any dangerous plant disease or insect infesta- 
tion new to or not theretofore widely prevalent or distributed within 
and throughout the United States. Notice of such quarantine is to 
be given to common carriers and published in newspapers. Plants 
or plant products so quarantined in relation to interstate shipments 
not to be offered for shipment, received for transportation, nor 
moved. 

The particular wording relating to domestic quarantine in this 
section has the same breadth of application as has the similar wording 
in section 7 in relation to foreign quarantine. 

Section 9 provides for the making of rules and regulations for the 
carrying out of the purposes of the act. 

Section 10. Penalties. 

Section 11 defines "territory" as used in the act. 

Section 12 provides for the establishment of a deflnite Federal 
horticultural board in the Department of Agriculture to carry out 
the provisions of the act. 

vSection 13. Appropriation. 

Section 14. Date Vviien the act becomes efl'ective. 

CONDITIONS WHICH CALL FOR THIS LEGISLATION. 

The United States is the only great pov/er without protection from 
the importatioi> of insect-infested or diseased plant stock. 

Referring to European powers only, Austria-Hungary, France, 
German}^, Holland, Switzerland, and Turkey prohibit absolutely the 
entry from the United States of all nursery stock, and admit fruit only 
when the most rigid examination, shows freedom from infestation ; and 
most of the others have very strict quarantine and inspection laws, 
and the same is true of the important British and other colonial 
possessions. 

The United States thus becomes a sort of "dumping ground" for 
refuse stock. Diseased live stock niay be, and are, excluded by law, 
but diseased and insect-infested plants have no bar against introduc- 
tion. 



4 IMPOKTATION AND MOVEMENT OF PLANTS, ETC. 

More than half of the miportant msect pests of fruits and farm 
crops are of foreign origin, and these now occasion a tax of nearly 
half a billion dollars annually. A properly enforced quarantine and 
inspection law in the past would have excluded many, if not most, of 
these insect enemies and also many plant diseases. 

Wliile, as just indicated, most of the important seriously injurious 
insects and plant diseases, which are now levying an enormous yearly 
tax on agricultural productions, have been introduced from foreign 
countries, there are still manv other insect pests and plant diseases 
which may be excluded. There are important orchard and fruit 
pests in Europe and Asia, the entry of which can be guarded against. 
There is also just noy>' especial danger from introductions from Asia, 
where conditions are little known and where pests are very apt to be 
new and unusually destructive. 

An illustration of this is seen in the San eTose scale, which was intro- 
duced into tliis country from north China, and has been carried into 
every State in the Union on nurser}- stock. This pest has already 
cost the orchardists of tliis countrv $50,000,000, and is adding to this 
sum at the rate of $5,000,000 each year. This $5,000,000 annual 
charge comes from the actual cost of spraying operations, which are 
absolutely necessary to keep the trees alive and productive, and from 
the shrinkage in quantity and value of the fruit yield. 

The alfalfa leaf weevil is another of the recently introduced foreign 
insect pests, and its ravages in the great alfalfa regions of Utah are 
now well known, and there are no means of preventing its spreading 
ultimately throughout all the great alfalfa regions of the Pacific 
coast and the Mississippi Valley. 

Still another recently introduced pest is the European elm-bark 
beetle which has become estabhshed in ^lassachusetts, and is the 
chief agent in the destruction of the historic elms of Cambridge. 
The moribund or dead trunks of these splendid old trees are now 
being chopped down and removed at a cost merely for the removal 
of upward of $30 per tree. This new elm pest may in the end prove 
almost as serious an enemy to the elms in this country as the chestnut 
disease has proved to chestnut forests in the eastern United States, 
and this chestnut disease is also of comparatively recent foreign origin. 
Many other illustrations could be given, but these are perhaps suffi- 
cient to illustrate the type of dangers which should at once be guarded 
against . 

As already indicated, much could have been saved to the agricul- 
tural and natural forest resources of this country if legislation similar 
to this had been early enacted. Many of the plant diseases and insect 
enemies of the Old World now established in this country could un- 
doubtedly have been excluded and this would have given this country 
a tremendous advantage for a long period, in augmenting the quantity 
produced and lessening the cost of production. The past can not be 
altogether remedied, but the future can be safeguarded, and this act 
will go a long way toward accomplishing this end. 

The enactment of this legislation is especially urgent at this time 
to exclude several immediate dangers of the gravest character, as well 
as to afford geneial protection in the future against all important 
plant diseases and insect pests. 

The so-called Mediterranean fruit fl}' has recently become estab- 
lislied in tlie Plawaiian Islands, and unless quarantined against is 



IMPORTATION AND MOVEMENT OF PLANTS^ ETC. 5 

certain to be brought into this country from tli.ose ishmds or from 
other quarters of tiie workl where it lias gained foothold. It is a 
more serious fruit pest tlxan any now occurring, on this continent. 
Its larvfe, or maggots, infest all sorts of fruits and many vegetables, 
and the presence of tliese in the fruit can not be determined except 
by cutting tb.e fruit oi)en. Its introduction would be most disastrous 
to tb.e citrous and deciduous fruit ranches of tb.e Pacific coast and. in 
fact, to all our fruit-grov/ing interests. 

Another very grave danger at tliis time is the likehood of the intro- 
duction of the potato wart witli imported potatoes. Tlie short crop 
of last year has already led to enormous importations of foreign pota- 
toes, and these importations have come in many instances from dis- 
tricts where this dreaded disease is known to exist. We are, for 
example, now receiving quantities of potatoes from Newfoundland, 
wliere the potato disease is so firmly establislied that her neighbor, 
Carikda, has strictly rjuarantined against all potatoes from this island, 
witli tlie result t.bat we are now getting all tj'e surplus. It is signifi- 
cant also that Canada is now considering t)i.e establisbment of quar- 
antine against potatoes from t-ie United vStates because t'lis country 
is allowino; tine importation of diseased potatoes from Newfoundland. 
The establishmoit of tliis potato disease in tb.e great potato-growing 
regions of the United States would result in losses almost beyond 
computation. It is a soil disease, and once in the soil it remains for a 
period of from 8 to 10 years, and puts an e^'ectual check on potato 
production, invading and destroying the potato tubers. 

Another grave danger is tlie likelihood of the establishment in' tliis 
country is of the wliite-pine blister rust, wliicit has caused enormous 
losses in certain districts in Europe — particularly to seedling i^ine 
stock. Tins disease has during the last few years been im"-">orted on 
seedling pines into many of our States. Earnest e'^'ort inis been 
made to destro}'- all such infested shipments, and it is hoped that this 
work has been successful. If this disease becomes establislied in 
this country it will result in enormous losses to our i^ine forests. In 
the case of this pine rust, most of the infested seedlings have come 
from a single nursery and district in Germany — a district which is 
more or less locally quarantined against, with the natural residt of 
making us the recij:ients of its diseased products. A law under 
which such districts and such products can be absolutely quarantined 
against is imperatively needed. 

The danger which led to the first attempt to get tiiis legislation is 
still in existence — that is, the likelihood of the establishment through- 
out the United States of the gypsy and brown-tail moths with nurser}' 
stock imported from Europe. During the last few years such infested 
material has been carried to no less than 23 diTerent States. In 1909, 
7,000 nests, containing nearly 3,000,000 larvae, were found in ship- 
ments into New York State — seed material enough to infest the 
whole United States within a few years; and, as already noted, such 
infested shipments have been sent to many other States, extending 
from the Atlantic seaboard to the Rocky Mountains. So far as pos- 
sible, this imported stock has been examined and the infesting larvae 
removed and destroyed by State authorities or, where these were not 
available, by employees of the Bureau of Entomology of the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture. It is by no means certain, however, that all 



6 IMPORTATION AND MOVEMENT OF PLANTS, ETC. 

infested material lias been inspected, and tlie insect may now be 
established at remote interior points. 

It is scarcely necessary to comment on the danger to this country 
from the careless introduction and wide distribution of these two 
orchard and forest pests. In a limited district in New England 
more than a million dollars a year has been spent for a long period 
in a mere effort to control these tw^o insects, and the General Gov- 
ernment is now^ appropriating .1300,000 annually to endeavor to 
clear them from the border of the main liighways and thus check their 
spread. These expenditures do not take into account the actual 
damage done, but they do serve as a measure of the danger to the 
W'hole country from the recent distribution of these two insects on 
imported nursery stock. 

In this bill the quarantine provisions are made immediately 
applicable to three of these dangers, namely, the Mediterranean 
fruit fly, the potato w^art, and the w4iite-pine blister rust. 

With the exception of importing nurserymen there has been 
practically universal demand for this legislation. The horticul- 
tural societies of many States have demanded it and have come 
solidly to its support. Resolutions favoring this legislation have 
been passed b}" numerous bodies of tliis character, and the horti- 
cultural and entomological officials of practically every State in 
the Union have long been urging its enactment. 

The opposition to this legislation in the past has been on the part 
of import mg nurserymen and, through these, of the National Asso- 
ciation of Nurserymen, the nursery interests fearing that such a law 
would put unnecessary burdens and restrictions on their business. 
The educational work of the last few^ years has demonstrated to most 
of these nurserymen that their fears have been groundless, and nur- 
sery associations of whole States have given emphatic support to 
this legislation. 

This^ bill has been discussed very fully with the committee on 
legislation of the National Association of Nurserymen, and this 
committee, for this National Nurserymen's Association, has accepted 
the bill as satisfactory to them and as desirable legislation. There 
is, therefore, now% so far as w^e know^, no antagonism anywhere to 
this measure; and it has practically unanimous support from all the 
vast fruit-growing, forest, and allied interests in this country. 

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